


Sun, then not so much Fun

by Thoughtyouknewr



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Biological difference, Dads of Marmora (Voltron), For humans, Gen, Humans are very strange, Keith doesn't understand why, Keith's pack gets very worried, Kit Keith, Regris is like Keith's older brother, Sunburns are normal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2019-05-07 22:59:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14681223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thoughtyouknewr/pseuds/Thoughtyouknewr
Summary: Keith enjoys a day out at the beach with the other Blades, but then wakes up to remember why exactly sunscreen exists. He's expecting a few days of pain and annoyance as he heals. He forgot to take into account that Galra don't get sunburns and the rest of his pack was decidedly not expecting him to change colors.





	1. Sunburn and Freckles

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Voltron. If you're reading this anywhere that you had to pay for it, it's stolen. It should only be posted on AO3, where it's free. 
> 
> This is set sometime in season 4ish, but no one is dead. Keith has been living with the Blades for awhile, and has joined a pack. He's the youngest of the pack, and considered a kit.

Keith hated the sun. He really, really hated it. Especially now that he was in space and had to deal with so many different levels of solar radiation. And no sunscreen. 

He and the Blades had been out in the sun all day yesterday, and it had actually been pretty pleasant while it lasted. It was so rare that any of them got a break, and Keith had enjoyed chasing Regris around and play-fighting with a few of the other younger Blades. 

It was only after they returned to the ship for the night that he remembered why that was such a bad idea. He’d been exhausted. The sun always took it out of him. His pale skin gave him no protection from the sun, and he was already beginning to develop a sunburn. He’d taken a shower and gone to bed immediately. 

When he dragged himself out of the pack nest the next morning, he immediately regretted every decision that had led him to this place. He was still exhausted and his skin felt tight and incredibly tender. He felt flushed even though he was usually cold on the base. Sunburn had set in. Fortunately, most of it would be under his clothes during the day. That meant more pain for him, but at least his embarrassingly fair skin wouldn’t be on display for the other (fur covered) Blades to tease him about.

He stumbled into the bathroom to get the room to himself before the others woke up. The bad thing about having such a big pack was that personal space was sometimes a little rare. Keith didn’t mind for most things, but he really hated sharing a bathroom. 

He contemplated another shower, and even had his shirt off before he reconsidered. Good as the cool water would feel, he didn’t particularly want to feel it beating down on his offended skin. 

Instead, he brushed his teeth threw cold water from the sink over his face. He almost jolted back in shock at catching sight of himself in the mirror. 

“You have got to be kidding me,” he groaned, poking disappointedly at his own cheek. His _freckled_ cheek. It wasn’t bad, just a dusting over his cheeks and nose. A few old women had called them adorable. Keith hated them. 

Why?????? Why did this have to happen to him? Regris would tease him _forever_. 

He glared at himself for a few seconds, then his shoulders slumped as he gave up. This day was doomed. He was going back to bed. Forget morning training. Forget today. 

He left his shirt on the floor. His swimsuit had seemed like a logical choice when he was running around on the beach. Not so much now with his entire torso smarting. No use prolonging his agony by putting on the shirt before he had to. 

He climbed back into the nest and pulled a blanket over his head. He was cold now, of course. Thanks, fever. 

Unfortunately, this was quite out of character for him, and immediately caught the attention of his pack. 

“Kit?” Kolivan, who was usually the second out of the nest, asked. 

“Go away,” Keith moaned miserably. “I’m dying of embarrassment.”

Several larger bodies shifted at that and Keith grumbled to himself as he curled in tighter. 

“What’s wrong, kit?” Antok questioned sleepily.

“Nothing,” Keith said forcefully.

“We may be able to help with whatever is so mortifying,” Thace coaxed, pulling gently at Keith’s blanket. 

“There’s nothing you can do,” Keith insisted, finally giving up and allowing the blanket to be tugged below his head. 

Regris, who had shifted around at some point to be sitting right next to Keith’s head, shrieked in alarm. Keith jumped, loosing the rest of his blanket. The adults all started whining and snuffling at him. So much distress filled the room that Keith felt dizzy with it. He let out his own whine in response. 

Thace gave a few quick, soothing licks to his hair, then Antok picked him up and went barreling out of the room. 

“Ow,” Keith hissed as the position put pressure on his skin. “What’re you doing? What’s wrong?”

“It’s ok, kitten,” Kolivan comforted as he ran next to Antok. The rest of the pack followed they fled through the halls. “Ulaz will know what’s wrong. He has to know what to do. You won’t stay this color forever.”

“Of course I won’t,” Keith agreed, confused beyond measure. “Wait, are you all upset over _me_?”

“Ulaz!” Thace yelled as they entered the infirmary. “There’s something wrong with our kit!”

Ulaz dropped everything as Antok dumped Keith on a cot. “He’s turned red!” Antok exclaimed. 

“And he’s got brown spots!” Regris wailed. “Is he dying!?”

“Guys!” Keith yelled. “I’m not dying!”

Ulaz looked just as horrified as the rest by Keith’s appearance. “I-I don’t know,” he stuttered. “I’ve never seen-“

“That’s fine,” Keith cut him off, “because I have. I’m fine, guys. Or, mostly fine, anyway.”

“You know what’s caused this?” Ulaz asked as he prodded at Keith’s chest. 

“Ow!” Keith complained again. “Don’t touch. That hurts.” 

Ulaz drew back instantly. 

“And of course I know what it is. Geez, you’re all acting like I’m deathly ill or something.”

“You’ve _changed colors_ ,” Thace told him as though he thought Keith didn’t understand. 

“Yes, I’ve got that,” Keith said dryly. “I suppose this isn’t something you usually have to worry about, with the fur and all,” he realized. “I’ve just got a sunburn. We always turn red when we’re burned. It's nothing serious. It’ll go away on its own in a few days.”

“A sun-brun?” Kolivan repeated awkwardly. 

“Yeah,” Keith confirmed. “I was out in the sun all day yesterday with no covering and no sunscreen. I stupidly forgot that it would lead to this.”

“Your species is delicate enough that the heat of a sun lightyears away could do this to you?” Ulaz asked. 

“Some of us,” Keith said. “The paler our skin, the worse we burn. Hunk and Lance would’ve been fine, maybe come out with slightly darker skin. I end up like this.” He waved a vague hand over himself. 

“But you said it hurt,” Regris reminded him. 

“Well, it’s a burn,” Keith said. “A first degree burn, in most cases, but still a burn. And it covers all of my body that I left exposed to the sun. It doesn’t feel great.”

They started to relax around him now that they were assured that we wasn’t dying.

“But that doesn’t explain the brown dots,” Thace protested. 

If Keith could’ve he would’ve blushed. He was too red already for that, though, so he simply rubbed embarrassedly at them and winced. “That’s a little less common,” he told them. They all started getting worked up again, so he rushed on. “But they’re not dangerous! They don’t even hurt like the sunburn. Some humans that are as pale as I am get these when we’re out in the sun. They called freckles, and they’re our body’s attempt at darkening our skin because darker skin has more protection against the sun. They’ll fade as well, but that’ll take longer. A few movements at least. Maybe a few phoebs.”

“What can we do to help?” Ulaz asked. 

“Uh, not much, I think,” Keith grimaced. “Water is good, because the sun dehydrates us. Cool wash cloths over burns help. We have this plant on our planet called Aloe that’s supposed to heal burns. It’s made into a sort of soothing, cold gel. I don’t know if there’s anything else like that in space. Other than that, it’s pretty much a waiting game. I’m fine, really.”

“At least fifty percent of your body is burned,” Ulaz said disapprovingly. “You should’ve come to the infirmary the moment you woke up.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Keith protested. “It’s not a burn like an _injury_ burn you get from touching something hot. It’s really just an inconvenience. We don’t even stop any of our usual activities for it.”

“Nice try, kit,” Kolivan snorted.

“Yeah, we haven’t heard that before,” Regris agreed sarcastically. 

“Ok, I admit that I may have…mislead you about the severity of my injuries before, but honest god, I’m not lying this time. This is really a minor thing.”

“Uh-hu,” Antok agreed, unimpressed. “I’ll take him back to the nest and sit with him. We can take it in shifts.”

Everyone else nodded, except Keith who kept trying to protest. 

Antok scooped him up around the waist (careful of the burns) and threw him over his shoulder. “Come along, kit,” he said, like Keith had any choice. 

Keith continued to try to convince them through the entire process of getting settled back in the nest with a whole blanket soaked in cool water then wrung out and wrapped around him. Antok flawlessly ignored him and sat Keith in his lap to groom his hair. His purring was soothing enough to relax Keith involuntarily. 

This wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been, Keith acknowledged to himself even as he grumbled sleepily at Antok. After all, he could be in the castle with Lance laughing his butt off at Keith and no one caring that he was in pain. It might even be nice to have a few days off. He’d been so busy lately. He may as well take advantage of the time to rest when it was offered. He snuggled into Antok’s bulk, and allowed the purring to lull him to sleep. 


	2. Peeling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is bored of rest and ready to get back to work, so he's excited when he starts peeling. The rest of the pack, not so much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the kudos, bookmarks and comments on the first chapter! It's always nice to know other people get some kind of amusement from my stories! Hope you like this part just as much!

Keith was wrong. Keith was so wrong. He hated rest. He hated relaxation. He hated sitting still. 

His pack was as good as their word. They kept Keith in the nest and wrapped in a damp blanket most of the time. The care they took of him was touching. They were so cautious not to touch his skin and plied him with so much water he threatened (not untruthfully) to throw up if they tried to give him more. Ulaz even managed to make something that resembled aloe. The pack then proceeded to slather Keith with it every few hours. It felt amazing to have people who cared about him, even if he was cold and covered in goo. 

It wasn’t like that Keith didn’t appreciate all the trouble they were going to. It was just that he’d never been stationary for so long in his life, and he was bored. His pack still kept him in the nest, partially, he thought, because he'd maybe been overworking himself a bit lately and they finally had an excuse to make him rest. 

They also seemed pretty disturbed by the sheer extent of the burns. Galra were furred creatures and fire was extremely dangerous for them. A little sparks could spread like a forest fire across their fur. They didn't get sunburns like humans, and even chemicals were usually warded off by their thick fur, so visible burns triggered memories of flames and danger for them. To them, Keith looked like he'd barely survived his encounter with the sun. 

Keith understood all that, really, but it didn't change his boredom. His attempts to escape started on the second quintant. He was still bright pink, which ironically made him blend in more around the base, but he was unfortunately conspicuous for his height. Regris, whose turn it was to watch Keith, found him only a few minutes after he entered the dinning hall and dragged him back to the nest. 

Keith got slightly farther away with Thace and Antok, but Ulaz and Kolivan caught him before he even reached the door.

The fifth time he tried to leave, Kolivan fixed a little necklace with a bell around his neck that tinkled every time he moved. It reminded Keith a little of a cat collar, and he was mortified. Kolivan stopped him from pulling it off.

“If you’re going to act like a kit that can’t be trusted not to wander away when no one is paying attention to you, then we will treat you like one,” he told Keith sternly. A fond, amused smile pulled at his mouth, but he tried to maintain the strict image. 

“You give these to kits?” Keith asked, his hand unconsciously falling away from trying to untie the bow at the back of his neck. 

“Oh yes,” Kolivan confirmed.”Every kit has one made for them as soon as they can move around by themself, and it isn’t removed until they start school. It’s impossible for parents to watch the nest closely at all times, especially when litters are usually at least three kits. This lets them know when naughty kits try to make a get away.” He shot Keith a playfully pointed, faux-stern look. 

Keith blushed, but didn’t try to pull it off again. If he really didn’t want to wear it, Kolivan wouldn’t actually stop him, but something about the obvious care behind the “punishment” stayed his hand. It felt like something more. It was a joke, yes, but with meaning behind it: a subtle declaration of parental feeling and protection. Would his mother have made him one of these, if she had stayed? 

Besides, it was only a piece of ribbon with a little bell on it. Galra didn't have cats, so the connotation wasn't there for them, and it was even red. Keith hadn’t had any luck with the knot anyway. He couldn’t get it off if he wanted to. He pointedly ignored his knife lying not a foot away and the fact that he hadn't actually tried very hard. 

Still, it put an end to his escape attempts. The other Galra might not think his freckles and sunburn were worth teasing him over, but this certainly would be. Keith would never wear it outside the nest. 

Ironically, he was allowed more freedom and alone time when he stopped trying to gain them. Once his pack knew they could trust him to stay put, they let him move around more, and even left him alone a few times. 

It was during one of these brief periods that Keith woke up and realized he was finally, _finally_ peeling. His sun burn would be gone after he removed the dead skin!

Later he would realize that this was something he probably should’ve prepared the rest of the pack for. Most Galra were furry; they wouldn’t understand the practice of removing layers of their outer covering. As it was, that didn’t even cross Keith’s mind. He sat calmly in the nest, picking at his skin and depositing flakes of dead skin in a small trashcan. 

There was something oddly satisfying about pulling off the old skin and knowing that there was healthy new skin underneath. Keith got rather caught up in it, and maybe wasn’t paying as much attention to his surroundings as he could’ve. 

It came as a complete surprise when a shriek cut through the peaceful air.

Keith rolled into a defensive crouch and reached for his knife, but Thace was on him before he could reach it. Keith struggled briefly, panicked at being gabbed unexpectedly. 

“Thace?” he questioned as he caught a glimpse of who had him. He went limp and stopped struggling. “What’s wrong?”

Thace only gave a distressed whine and clutched Keith closer. For the second time in a movement, Keith found himself being unceremoniously carted off to the infirmary. 

“Ulaz, our kit is falling apart!” Thace yelled as he set Keith down on a bed. “We must not have cared correctly for the sunburn! Now his skin is coming off!”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Keith chanted as Ulaz converged on him. The doctor’s hands hovered uncertainly around him as Ulaz echoed Thace’s earlier distressed whine. 

“What in the name of Korvan?” Ulaz breathed in horror. “I thought humans weren’t supposed to-“

“Guys!” Keith interrupted. “It’s normal.”

Both of them froze. “It’s-it’s what?” Ulaz stammered.

“Keith, I don’t think-“ Thace started trepidatiously. 

“After a sunburn,” Keith cut in, “it’s normal for human bodies to get rid of the damaged skin. Our skin has layers. In this case, the top layer was too badly burned for my body to bother trying to fix it. It was quicker and easier to grow new skin underneath and then shed the outermost layer. What’s peeling off is the dead, burned layer. There’s more skin underneath, and it doesn’t even hurt.”

“Humans can regrow whole layers of their flesh in less than a movement?” Ulaz asked, dazed.

“Well, yeah,” Keith shrugged. 

“And it doesn’t hurt?” Thace confirmed. “You were just tearing it off! My kit was just ripping off his own skin in our nest!”

“Oh,” Keith said. Yeah, he could see how that would be disturbing. “No, doesn’t hurt at all. Just feels like a little tug. Really, it’s like how your fur comes out when you groom it. Sometimes you can’t even feel it. It’s already dead, and human bodies don’t like being attached to dead things.”

“But it will stop?” Ulaz asked warily. “You must understand this looks a lot more distressing than grooming.”

“Yep! And then my sunburn will be gone,” Keith confirmed with a smile. “And I can finally get back to my life.”

“Oh good,” Ulaz breathed. “I was beginning to get concerned with how long it was taking to heal. For something that you claim is so minor, it didn’t appear to be getting any better. I am relieved to see progress, even in this form.”

“You guys are being pretty dramatic for a sun burn,” Keith sighed, flopping back on the table. “I mean, it’s not like it’s skin cancer or something. Sunburns are really mild.”

“Skin cancer?” Ulaz asked. “What’s-?”

“No!” Keith cried. “Nope. Uh-uh. We’re not getting into that. You’d never let me out in the sun again!”

The two Galra observed him dubiously. 

Keith sighed. “It’s a much more serious disease that humans can get from overexposure to the sun. If not properly treated, it can kill. It’s signified by a smaller, much more severe and long lasting discoloration. My freckles do not count. Trust me on this.”

They looked stricken. “The sun can…it can kill you?” Thace questioned. 

“Well, I mean, I’d die faster if you just left me out in it than if I got skin cancer, but yeah,” Keith shrugged. “Look, it’s not really a big thing. I usually know what’s safe and what isn’t. I just hadn’t considered that you’d think sunburns were as big of a deal as you apparently do.”

“I…see,” Ulaz said. “We will keep this in mind.”

Keith found himself bundled back into their nest, hopefully for the last quintant. Four was quite enough, thanks very much. 

Thace was a little wary of helping Keith with peeling. He understood logically that it wasn’t painful, but that didn’t help the visceral reaction to seeing someone removing pieces of themself. Antok and Kolivan both had to be stopped from carting him back to Ulaz, and were maybe even more disturbed than Thace. Regris and Ulaz were fascinated, and that was probably a good thing, because Keith needed someone’s help to get to places he couldn’t reach. 

By the time they bedded down for the night, Keith was sunburn free and excited to get back to his normal duties. The last few quintants had certainly been experience, but he was more than ready to get back to work. At least everything could return to normal now. 

And it did. 

Until the next time they had a quintant out in the sun. He was approached before they went out by his pack, and cautiously handed a little bundle. 

“The worker at the Earth store said humans use this to keep off the sun,” Kolivan explained. 

Keith opened it curiously. It was the wrong shape for sunscreen, and couldn’t think of anything els-

A parasol. They’d gotten him a parasol, like a beauty enthusiast afraid to ruin their complexion. He glanced back up at their hopeful faces, and internally groaned. It was a thoughtful gift and Keith didn’t want to ruin the sentiment. 

“I-thank you,” he stuttered. 

The grins that spread across their faces made it worth the embarrassment. 

Oh well. At least Lance wasn’t here to make fun of him. And hey! He could probably very easily weaponize this. It was actually made of pretty sturdy wood. Maybe he could sharpen the end into a point and wrap it in cloth to disguise it. It was something that enemies would think signified a weakness, and Keith would be able to stab people with after they underestimated him. A win-win situation!

And that was how Keith ended up with a rose covered parasol that he carried around with pride. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keith's parasol pre-weaponization: https://d1wwyfhxuarwk4.cloudfront.net/images/products/common/white/large/9511-w_paper-parasol-with-vintage-floral-print459aa10a6bff28f139a0c389d6697abc.jpg
> 
> So I was a little iffy on the necklace. Kolivan mostly gave it to him as a joke (and also to show Keith how much he cares). He wasn't expecting Keith to actually keep it on, but was touched when he did. Neither of them are the greatest with words, but they can do gestures. 
> 
> Hope you guys enjoyed! Have a great day!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm currently planning to do a second chapter where Keith is peeling and it triggers another panic :p
> 
> Hope you guys enjoyed this!


End file.
